Wall St edges up on telecom gains; Fed meet in focus

Restaurant chains and specialty retailers were among the biggest gainers. The Nasdaq composite lost 4 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,456. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 3.4 basis points to a one-month closing high of 2.277%.

On the other hand, gold stocks fell sharply following the Fed announcement, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 1.9%.

FED WATCH: At the end of its two-day meeting on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve was widely expected to announce it will begin to reduce its enormous bond portfolio, which stands at $4.5 trillion.

Meanwhile, Caterpillar rose two percent, hitting a record high after UBS analysts said the company was due to benefit from growing spending in the mining and construction sectors.

The Fed's projections pointed to a quarter basis point rate increase later this year, with the rate hike widely expected to come at the December meeting.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed for a sixth consecutive session, hitting another record high, while the S&P 500 touched the 2,500 benchmark in its own run to an all-time peak, shrugging off geopolitical uncertainties and downbeat us data on gains in telecommunications and financials.

United States stocks edged up in early afternoon trading on Tuesday, helped largely by gains in telecom stocks, but traded in a narrow range as investors stayed away from making major bets ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting.

Daily December E-mini S&P 500 Index

The Dow floated higher, lifted by JP Morgan Chase, which gained 1.4 percent, and by Goldman Sachs and American Express, which each rose one percent. The wider S&P 500 closed at 2,508.24, up 1.59 points or 0.06%. Sales were hurt by a worsening shortage of homes for sale, a trend exacerbated by the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey's strike on Texas and Louisiana last month.

Michael Kors KORS.N rose about 2.56 percent after Oppenheimer upgraded the stock to "outperform" from "perform".

Oil prices were higher, but pared gains after data showed a bigger-than-expected build in US crude inventories.

Energy stocks were rising along with the price of crude oil early Wednesday. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.1 percent and South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.2 percent. The euro weakened to $1.1996 from $1.1997. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.1 percent, while South Korea's Kospi lost almost 0.1 percent. While the UK's FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1%, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 both crept up by 0.1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell almost 0.4 percent.